Squarespace Calling John Malkovich

Squarespace commercial “Calling John Malkovich” is one of the nominations for Most Outstanding Commercial at this year’s Emmy Awards. The Super Bowl commercial is a continuation of the Squarespace campaign in which John Malkovich sets out to establish an online fashion design business. Things get tricky when he discovers that a namesake has already got the domain name, johnmalkovich.com, to host the ultimate fishing site. “Who is John Malkovich” shows John’s discovery of the competitor and the drafting of an expletive-filled email. There’s a reference to the film, “Being John Malkovich”. And then, “Calling John Malkovich”, with a 30 second Super Bowl commercial and a 50 second director’s cut, we get the sense that John Malkovich and the owner of JohnMalkovich both have a temper that’s hard to control. The campaign is online at squarespace.com/john, with the message, “Search for your domain and grab it before someone else does. The domain name johnmalkovich.com, has been with John since 2004, when it promoted the online performance art site johnmalkovich.org, the menswear collection site johnmalkovichcollection.com and design agency site mrsmudd.info. But the Squarespace connection has been live since January 2017, as seen on our earlier post, John Malkovich on Squarespace.

“In contrast to the over-the-top Super Bowl ads, we wanted to cut through with simplicity,” says John McKelvey, executive creative director and co-founder of New York advertising agency John X Hannes.

“An intimate, relatable moment of panic. The creative was designed so we first experience John discovering his domain is taken in the pre-game spot. Then we all get to enjoy John Malkovich calling John Malkovich to ask for it back during the in-game commercial. Inspired by real world events and the domain JohnMalkovich.com.”

“No one knows an identity crisis better than John Malkovich, nor could there be a better actor to communicate the emotion and humor of this modern dilemma,” says Hannes Ciatti, executive creative director and co-founder.

“Get your domain before it’s gone plays with the universal fear of discovering you’re not the only one with your name and your online identity is taken by someone else.”

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